


Trials by Fire

by alltoseek



Series: The Burke House [2]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Age Changes, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Foster Care, Gen, Kid Fic, Parent!Burkes, Parenthood, kid!Alex Hunter, kid!Matthew Keller, kid!Mozzie, kid!Neal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8229917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alltoseek/pseuds/alltoseek
Summary: Teddy overreacts when Mozart the bear suffers a minor harm. Matty has a solution. Peter overreacts to Matty's solution.





	

Alex watched, fascinated, as Matty held Mozart over the fire. The fire crackled and spit out sparks, but Mozart was perfectly safe. From all harm, forever, as Matty intoned. Alex watched the flames dance and listened to Matty’s magical words. Matty was brilliant and he could fix anything. He could even make _immortality_. 

*~*~*

Earlier, Teddy had gone berserk, just because Alex spilt a bit of honey on the stuffed bear.

“I was just trying to feed him a treat!” Alex defended herself hotly. “Like Winnie-the-Pooh!”

“AARRRGGGHHH!” yelled Teddy, banging his head and spinning in circles.

Matty looked up from the couch where he and Neal were playing chess. Matty laughed. “Teddy the Freak! Teddy the Freak!” he called out in a soft sing-song.

Really, Teddy _was_ freaking out way more than necessary over a little bitty mess.

“MOZZIE MY MY MOZZIE MOZZIE!” yelled Teddy, waving the sticky bear. He was jumping up and down now, sort of heading towards Neal, with lots of jerky side-jumps this way and that.

Neal rose to comfort Teddy. Matty scoffed at him, “That's right, never mind our game, go join your brother the freak.”

Neal scowled. “Don't call him that, it doesn't help anything.” Neal spoke quietly to Teddy, “Hey, let me see Mozart, okay? We'll get him cleaned up, all right?”

“NO NO NOOOOO!” yelled Teddy. “BAD BAD **BAD**!!!” he added, thrusting his pointed finger towards Alex on each iteration.

“Teddy the Freak,” called Matty again. Alex beamed at him. He always stuck up for her. But when Matty opened his mouth again, Neal glared fiercely at him and Matty changed his words midstream. “Teddy the Fr-Mozzer... Teddy the Mozzie! Teddy the Moz!” Matty said smugly, sitting back in satisfaction. “Teddy the Mozzie!”

Neal rolled his eyes, and kept trying to talk to Teddy, who'd gone from yelling and jumping to crying and rocking. Alex felt bad, though she didn't want to. Didn't know why she ought to either. She hadn't done anything _wrong_.

Matty stood up and held his arms up and out like a prophet. “Theodore the Mozzer!” he said commandingly.

Neal and Teddy both turned to him, Teddy wide-eyed and silent, gaping.

“I can restore Mozart to his pristine condition, and prevent any further harm from coming to him,” announced Matty.

“Really?” asked Teddy, incredulous.

“Absolutely,” smirked Matty. “You'll need to be calm, cos I'll need your help. Think you can do that?”

Teddy nodded furiously. “Yes yes yes! Mozzie!”

Matty told Teddy to start a fire in the fireplace. Teddy loved it when his older brothers let him show off his skills, and he focused on the tricky task right away. More importantly, he stopped yelling at Alex.

Now Matty held Mozart by one leg, hanging high over the low flames so the bear itself wouldn't catch on fire. The honey dripped off, one tiny drop at a time, each one sizzling away into a sweet burst of smoke as it fell.

“Thetis held Achilles over a fire to burn away his mortality,” said Matty.

Neal nodded. “She would cover him in ambrosia, when he was a baby, and as the flames burnt it away, so Achilles became protected from all harm.”

“Who’s Acklees?” asked Alex.

“Ah-kill-ees” murmured Teddy.

“Achilles was a great warrior,” said Matty. “Invincible.”

Neal nodded again. “He was invulnerable to nearly everything, because of what Thetis did for him.”

“His heel was his only weak spot, where his mother had held him,” said Teddy, looking anxiously at Matty's hand holding Mozart by the foot.

Matty smiled reassuringly. “Don't you worry, Theodore. We'll make sure Mozart here becomes immune to everything.”

Teddy smiled broadly, then frowned at the change in the smoky scent. It smelled like charred hair which could only be – “NO! MOZZIE!” he yelled, pointing at an ear which was beginning to turn a darker brown.

“It's all right, don't worry about ol' Mozzie,” said Matty. He picked up the pitcher he'd prepared in advance: “Now Mozart will be baptized in the River Styx!” and poured it over the bear and the fire, putting it out.

Teddy snatched the soaking wet bear, wailing again. Neal consoled him. “Mozart will dry out, don't worry. And now he is protected against any kind of harm – he's practically immortal!”

Matty winked at Alex, smirking. Alex laughed. “That was _awesome!_ ”

Dad had been working outside in the back garden, but maybe he'd caught a whiff of the smoke, because now he came storming into the house. “What the hell is going on in here?!?!” he yelled, loud enough to silence Teddy, who sat down abruptly, hunching over Mozart.

“Language,” murmured Neal and Alex, automatically.

Matty leaned back, cool as anything, and said, “Relax, dad, the fire's out.”

“Fire?! What fire?! Where was there a fire?! Why are there fires in the house?!”

“Jeez, Burke, chill out! I set a small fire – ” Matty started to explain.

“YOU SET A FIRE!!?!!!?!”

“–IN THE FIREPLACE,” roared Matty back. “Fuckin' a, old man, you're gonna give yourself a heart attack you don't learn to relax.”

“How the hell am I supposed to relax when I have arsonists setting fires IN MY HOUSE?!?!!!”

Matty gaped briefly at that. “Fuck this, I'm done,” he said quietly. He got up and left by the front door, his nonchalant act ruined by his quick strides and hunched shoulders.

Everyone was left a bit stunned. Alex and Neal had watched the exchange, silent and pale. Teddy had curled up tighter around Mozart, arms wrapped around his knees and head down in a tight ball.

Peter stood in the middle of the room, running his hand through his hair and staring at the front door, panting a bit.

Finally Neal tried to explain: “Peter, Dad, it’s all right. Matty's not an arsonist – he just lit a little fire in the fireplace, and then he put it out again right away. It's OK, Dad, really.”

Peter, looking around with wild eyes, responded. “No, it's not. It's not OK. No one is to set fires in the house – or _anywhere!_ – without supervision. You all got that?!”

There were solemn nods all around. Alex went over to Teddy and quietly offered to help dry off Mozart. They sidled covertly off into the kitchen.

After a moment, Neal started, “But, Dad – ”

“Don't,” said Peter.

“But Matty – ”

Peter held up his hand.

Neal mumbled, “It's not fair.”

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

“You set a fire in the fireplace! Just a few days ago!”

“Yeah. Because I'm an _adult!_ The last thing we need around here is for kids to be _playing with fire!_ Christ, I shouldn't have to explain this.”

“Matty wasn't playing! He just a lit a little fire, just like you had! He checked the flue and everything!”

“He checked the– That's my problem. Here I am thinking you and Matty at least are smart enough to know better, but the problem is you both think you are so smart that the rules don't apply to you!”

“I didn't set any fires. I wasn't going to,” said Neal, hurt.

“No, I know. I'm sorry.”

“And it's not fair, calling Matty an arsonist. He's not! He wouldn't! He had water all ready – he was being safe!”

Peter took a breath, about to lecture again, but thought better of it. “OK, you're right. I overreacted. Dammit.” He blew out a breath. “I need to find Matty. I need to apologize.”

Peter didn't like to leave the three younger children alone, but it was El's day out, and the longer he waited the farther Matty might go.

Neal offered to look after Teddy and Alex. Peter gave him a sharp look, but decided that the incident had cowed the kids into at least a temporary quiet obedience. “Don't do anything stupid.”

“I won't,” Neal promised.

~*~

Peter knew most of Matty's hiding spots, so it didn't take long to locate him.

Matty was sitting on a low ledge, back against the wall, staring at the mural on the building across the alley. Peter walked over and folded his long limbs on the low seat. Side by side with his eldest son, he contemplated the mural opposite. In a beautiful trompe l’oeil effect the bricks crumbled away to show the interior of a gorgeous palace, itself filled with artwork. 

After a few quiet moments Peter spoke. “I'm sorry I got so angry. I said things I shouldn't have.”

“Yeah, you did,” said Matty.

“I know, I'm sorry. Look, the thing is, I got so – so, well, worried. I heard Teddy yelling and crying, I smelled the smoke, you started talking about fires, and I was worried. Scared, even. When I get scared I get angry. The more scared, the more angry.”

Matty looked skeptical at this. “But there wasn't any fire any more. What were you so scared of?”

“I guess, that one of you could have been hurt. That if you think it's OK to set fires, that the next time someone will get hurt. The house will burn down. You just – fire's a really dangerous thing. It's like letting a kid behind the wheel of a car.”

“You know in a coupla years I can get behind the wheel of a car.”

“Yeah, and it scares me!”

They both chuckled a bit.

Matty thought a moment. “Nah, I don't think that's it.”

“You don't think what's it?” asked Peter, puzzled.

“Your whole explanation, that you called me an arsonist because you smelled some smoke and you came over all terrified.”

“I already told you, I shouldn't have said that – ”

“Yeah, you say that now. But you still said it then, and it wasn't outta fear. It's cos you don't trust me.”

“Matty, that's not – ”

“Oh no, Agent Burke, don't you go lying to me. Not after all the times you harp on me about honesty. You said arsonist cos you really think that's the kind of thing I'd do, go around setting fires for the hell of it, to watch shit burn.”

Peter murmured “Language” out of habit, then said out loud, “No, I really don't. I know you wouldn't – that's not at all the kind of thing you'd do.”

“Then why'd you say it?”

“Because I – ” Peter broke off to take a deep breath. “Because I'm worried. That you might. Someday, you might become, a, a person that might do that. I don't want to – I don't want to think you might, or worry that you might, but there it is. I'm worried. I only want the best for you, Matty, I really do. I want only the best possible future for you. But I worry. I'm sorry.”

“Well.” Matty contemplated that for a moment. “Well, I'm not. I'm not going to be an arsonist, anything like that. I don't wanna destroy things. I like things, I like having nice things. I don't wanna hurt people neither. Especially not my family, my friends. OK? So stop acting like I'm gonna murder you in your beds.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “I know you're not.”

“Okay then. Stop acting like it. I don't like that you don't trust me. It makes me feel untrustworthy, you know? It makes me feel like I oughta act like you all _shouldn't_ trust me. Do you get it?”

“Yeah, yeah I do. I know. I should be smarter than that. I expect that you do well in school – and you do. I should expect that you do well at home too. Because you do. I know you love your brothers and sister.”

Matty gave a small wry smile. “Eh. I wouldn't go that far. Alex is pretty cute though.” He stood up and started walking towards home.

Peter smiled and followed. “She's adorable. Neal really looks up to you,” he added.

“Yeah, I know. It's adorable.”

Peter huffed a laugh.

“Teddy's really smart. I mean, when he's not acting like a retard,” said Matty.

“Don't – ”

“I know, language. You know what I mean. He acts like he doesn't know which way is up sometimes.”

“Sometimes I think he doesn't know,” Peter said thoughtfully.

Matthew stopped and stared at him. “What?”

Peter gave him a look.

“Really?”

Peter nodded.

“Huh.” Matty started walking again. “Well, all right then. But look here – you want me to stop with words like retard, right? Cos Teddy isn't.”

“That and – ”

“My point is that you can't be calling me names either, get it? I'm not gonna live where you call me an arsonist. I'm not gonna let you do that to me.”

“No, you're right, I won't. I'm sorry, it won't happen again.”

“All right,” said Matty. “Well, OK then.”

They walked on in a companionable silence.

“So, uh, out of curiosity, what was it you were doing anyway?” Peter asked.

Matty explained about making Mozart 'immortal'. “The best part is, I'm hoping that Teddy’ll stop carrying on every time something happens from now on.”

Peter stopped and put his arm out to turn Matty towards him. “But, dammit, Matty, the bear could have caught fire – and you held it? Your arm could’ve – ”

“Jesus, Burke! Look, I already doused the thing in that upholstery protectant, the one with the fire retardant. And, before you ask, I did that last week, so the thing was completely dry, just like the instructions say, cos I can read, and I do, no matter what you seem to think – ”

Peter held up his hands in surrender. “OK, OK, I believe you, all right. From now on I will work harder to get all the facts straight before making any accusations, OK?”

Matty considered this. “Fair enough.”

“But here's the thing, I really can't have you lighting fires without supervision, OK? You guys want a fire, come ask me or Mom, can you do that?”

Matty considered this too. “Yeah, OK.”

“Just like driving a car. Don't mess with the electricity or plumbing either.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it, kids are stupid.”

“No, that's not it at all – look, I know you are smart enough to deal with plumbing, probably, maybe, but it's just – we're your parents, we have to know about these things. We have to supervise. The risk is too high. Do you get it? The chances of something going wrong may be small, but the consequences if something did go wrong? Huge! Does that make sense?”

Matty thought about it. “I suppose. High risk, low reward. So, what's mom making for dinner?”

Peter smiled at the abrupt change in subject. “Ha! She's not, remember? It's up to us, but I've been too busy tracking you down to deal with it yet.”

“Oh fuuu– ” groaned Matty.

“Yeah. Hungry? Me too. But we're gonna have to wait till we get home and can cook something up.”

“Huh. Don't suppose Neal would – ”

“Oh no,” said Peter, eyes widening. “Oh no, he better not have!”

_fin_


End file.
